Test at age 3 spots future crooks, addicts and deadbeat dads

Paris

TESTING for intelligence, motor skills and troubled behaviour at age three showed which tots were likely to wind up behind bars or as deadbeat dads later in life, a long-term study reported Monday.

The results should make it possible to deliver help to young kids at risk before they wind up with a rap sheet or a drug addiction, said the study, which measured the social cost of early childhood privation. The findings published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour may also apply to other wealthy societies with comparable income inequalities and social safety nets.